All summer I've maintained a very steady meditation practice of 20 minutes every morning.

(Although honestly, it's not like there's any enlightenment recipe regarding meditation. It's not a scientific formula like water freezing at 32 °F)

But what struck me as bananas was that yesterday I actually debated whether -- because my day was so packed with activities re: completing a summer project -- if I should set my morning meditation timer for 15 rather than 20 minutes.

I.E.: I actually debated whether I could truly afford those 5 extra minutes of centering stillness or not ...

As though those 5 minutes would somehow make or break the ACTION portion of my day.

In the same way, when it comes to that other staple of wellness -- exercise -- I'd like to remind myself now and always that 30 minutes is a little more than 3% of your basic 16 hours awake day. 3% ... that's all.

I love this Abraham-Hicks quote:

ALL SHORTAGES OF TIME OR MONEY ARE PERCEPTUAL

Even though the clock is ticking the same for everyone, your alignment affects your perception, as well as the results that you allow. As you observe the enormous difference in the effort that people apply and the results they achieve, you have to conclude that there is more to the equation of achieving than action alone.

This July (with lots of Action), I launched the eBook of my new novel DOWNWARD DOG (and, via Alignment, quite successfully, I'm happy to report.)

89 reviews on Amazon (all of them 5 or 4 stars -- except a single 3-star one complaining the novel, though "extremely well-written," was simply "too sexy").

Thus you could see why, for all of July, I felt like I couldn't block out the time for a single Creative Consult -- there just "wasn't enough time."

I honestly felt as though I didn't have a single 30 minutes free for a conversation with anyone.

So to remedy this mindset, this August I've decided to add a few more appointments (even though I only have 2 spaces for potential clients for the Fall).

You see, I actually enjoy talking to creative people about their projects and goals, their hopes and dreams.

Plus I want to remind myself that it's not so much my actions but my alignment that determines my results.

And, perhaps most importantly, as with my birthday dropbacks displayed above (one for each year of my life), I'd like to stay present with the fact that there's always enough time for what's really important ...